-The Hindu     Educationists emphasise importance of public participation Chennai: The Right to Education (RTE) Act guarantees children a place in school but it requires political will and public participation in running schools and sensitive bureaucrats who understand the needs of children to make it effective, say education activists. At a discussion organised by The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy here on Wednesday, eminent persons associated with children's education spoke of the...

-The Alternative I have been volunteering for social issues since my childhood. I spent most of my childhood with my parents in our agriculture fields in our village, Paleannaram (Nalgonda district, Andhra Pradesh) where I've been a real witness to climate change. My childhood was great because we never faced any water problem for farming and didn't use so many fertilizers on the crops for yields. The way climate is changing, it...

-The New Indian Express   Most people would have been shocked to read the year-end report that India has been ranked 63rd, much below countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, on the Global Hunger Index (GHI), a yardstick used by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) to comprehensively measure global hunger. The index is calculated as an average of three indices-undernourishment, underweight children and low child mortality rate-and is measured on a...

-The Conversation Resource-intensive agriculture, despite its productivity, nevertheless has failed to feed the world's current population, never mind the nine billion people expected by 2050. This system that currently fails both people and planet is ripe for revision. We need to be more ambitious, to go beyond simply producing more. We need to produce more of what's good - not just cereal staples, but nutrition-dense foods - in ways that can prevent...

-Live Mint Non-farm employment will increase by only 38 mn in financial years 2012-19, compared with 52 mn in FY 2005-12 New Delhi: The slowing economy will result in fewer jobs being added to industry and services in the next seven years and more workers moving back to farming, Crisil Research said in a report on Tuesday, indicating job creation will remain a key concern for the next government. Non-farm employment will increase...